Day 37

Game - Final Fantasy 5, Day 37
Hours Played/Hours Total - 9 hrs / 34-1/2 hrs
Starting Point - Nearby the Library of Ancients.
Current Goal - Obtain the 12 Legendary Weapons. Stop Exdeath from controlling The Void. Save the world.

What Happened - Every day I play...I get that much closer! I've only got 10 days left in this month to keep up with my goal, and I plan to keep with it! ONWARD! THROUGH FINAL FANTASY 5!
     Starting from the Library of Ancients, I had to start finding some hidden lithographs so that I could unlock the sealed chamber where the 12 Legendary Weapons were. The Sealed Book had given hints towards where the four lithographs were hidden. With the details in mind, I made my way to the first one located in a pyramid in the nearby desert. Along the way, the group passed by the Elder Tree and stopped for a moment to remember those lost to Exdeath's villainy. With the merging of the two worlds, the one world contains every aspect of the separate worlds like all the different locations. Moving right along, we came into the desert. This is the same desert from earlier on with the sandworm and shifting sands. However, the sands weren't moving at all. With the loss of both Earth Crystals, the earth was starting to die. The group continued onward to the pyramid. The first thing I got to do there was...BOSS BATTLE TIME!
     The boss here was a pair of gargoyles guarding the pyramid's entrance. According to the guide, this would be a rather ridiculous battle if done wrong. Basically, if you kill one without killing the other, they will revive the other one. If you aren't careful, you will get yourself stuck into a cycle of each one reviving the other. With that in mind, I took a costly approach (costly with gil) by simply applying the $toss move. Yet again, this move has come in handy. With a little attacking and a finishing $toss, the two gargoyles went down both fast and easily. I then made my way inside the pyramid. This pyramid was definitely designed with an Egyptian theme in mind. I realize that they're basically number one in pyramids, but I feel like this place was a bit overdone in that. I fought mummies, snakes, and snake people. There were sand traps, spike traps, snake traps, and sarcophagi. It was basically the Egyptian experience. Despite that, it was a fairly challenging dungeon. Many of the enemies were decently strong and were able to throw trouble my way. It didn't help the fact that I was down an entire party member (Reina). I also probably was making it worse with my not super-balanced party going into this. It was currently a Berserker, Blue Mage, and Samurai.
     After a small ways in, I was encountering enough resistance that I had to swap Krile over from Blue Mage to Black Mage with White Magic. This helped out since Black Magic does have better offensive abilities than Blue. I actually died once at one point due to some bad luck and timing on my part. (An enemy used Level 3 Flare on my party...and they were all at levels with multiples of 3. -_-) After making my way through multiple trapped chests and some almost overpowered enemies, I finally obtained the lithograph! The first of four...Moving right along, the group is transported to the top of the pyramid where we get to witness several events happening. A portion of a continent sinks and transforms into the giant super dragon god we all know and love...Bahamut! (Seriously, it was the size of a continent) A ship steers its way towards the Library of Ancients. And just shortly after leaving the pyramid, I encountered Dragon carrying Reina to the group. They were overjoyed, but their celebration was too soon. It seems that some monster from the N-Zone had possessed her and was planning to kill the group. As that was going down, Exdeath appeared and destroyed the Library of Ancients with his Void powers. Then took off while Reina started destroying the group. Lucky for me, Dragon flew in and separated the person possessing her, so it was time for BOSS BATTLE TIME!
     It wasn't necessarily the hardest boss, but I found out quickly that most of my attacks were useless. One character in their entirety (Faris) could literally do nothing to it, so I had to keep Faris on healing duty. Bartz (Berserker) could do damage if he managed to hit. Krile could do pretty good damage as a Black Mage, but the boss kept switching her magical weakness. After several frustrating rounds, I put the boss in the ground. Reina was okay, and the group continued onward. From there, my next goal was...I'm not sure. I ran to the nearby castle (Surgate Castle) and checked in with some of the scholars that got out of the Library of Ancients in time. One was able to read the book and point me to the next Lithograph temple...somewhere on an Island. With that new info, I made my way to the ship (it was the airship) that had landed nearby. Just as the group got on, Exdeath used his Void Powers to suck up and destroy multiple towns across the planet. It seems like I'll have to hurry up and get the weapons or the world is doomed. Of course, we know that by "hurry up" the game generally means "take your time and do what you want." My first stop with the airship back in my hands was the Sealed Castle containing the 12 Legendary Weapons. It seems that the first lithograph granted me access to three of the twelve. I took the Rune Axe, Masamune, and Magus Rod. Once taken, I left the castle for now and made my way to...Mirage Village!
     According to the guide, it's a fairly good place to run by before continuing on. I don't really love using a guide, but I hate missing big and powerful items because I forgot to take three seconds to go a different way. Anyways, off to Mirage Village! I flew over to the location and went inside. It has an unusual way of entering the town. It tricks you into thinking it is a random encounter. Once inside, you find out some interesting things about this village. It seems that Mirage Village is a mysterious "time-travelling" village that was lost to the N-Zone long ago. The people there talk about and recall seeing and being around the events that occurred long ago such as Enuo's uprising and defeat or the planet splitting in two. (Enuo was the villain who tried to control the Void long ago.) Aside from that, the village is home to some of the greatest items, equipment, and magic that you can buy in-game. After buying what I could, I began the search of the 8th and final piano. You see...The entirety of the game I've been finding and playing these pianos. It's part of some big side quest that I have no idea about. However, if you manage to find and play all of the pianos, it is supposed to reward you somehow at some point. I'm still unsure of what or where, but I will find it! I didn't mention it until now because it was mostly unimportant. Anyways, I left Mirage Village and made my way for the next shrine.
     It was supposed to be located on an island protected by the wind or something like that. After flying around a bit, I located what seemed to be the right place and went inside. The Island Shrine was waaaay easier than the Pyramid. The enemies weren't nearly as hard (although there was the annoying druid...), and the puzzles were basically nonexistent. It really helped having a pile of super holy weapons on my side. That is for sure. I pushed my way through until I found the second lithograph, but of course, I couldn't take it without a fight! A minion of Exdeath appeared, called the group little girls, and attacked me for BOSS BATTLE TIME! His name was Stoker, and his strategy was multiple images of himself with only one real him. I was already warned to not attack him with a group attack, and the only thing left was a game of Whack-A-Mole featuring Stoker! Lucky for me, outside of the annoyance, he wasn't all that tough at all. His best attack was Hurricane, but all that did was reduce an enemy's health down to single digits. I kept the party healed up and smacked all of the images until he was slain. Woo!
     With the Second Lithograph in hand, I unlocked the Fork Tower. The lithograph said that the tower housed the ultimate White and Black magics (Holy and Flare respectively). Before going that way, I made a trip back to the Sealed Castle to obtain three more Legendary Weapons! This time, I grabbed the Excalibur, the Holy Lance, and the Sage Staff. The other weapons start being more and more specific like a bell (Geomancer only), a harp (Bard only), a bow (Hunter), and a couple more like them. I still look forward to getting them, but they won't be as useful as the others I have at the moment. Anyways, with my new weapons equipped and ready, I made way to the Fork Tower for some kick-ass new magic!
     Turns out Fork Tower was straightforward, fairly easy, and completely required. You can't actually get through the rest of the game without doing this part. Anyways, for the tower, I had to split the party in two teams of two. If you tried to take the two super spells at separately, they would explode and destroy the tower. So...time for the ol' team split! I sent two groups upward and each tackled a different boss. I say it like that because there weren't many random encounters, and the splitting of the team was more of who was to deal with which boss. The guide suggested the physical warriors take on the Holy boss ,and the magical folk take on the Flare boss. So let's fast forward to BOSS BATTLE TIME! To claim Holy, I was forced to fight the Minitaurus. He was able to deal out some fierce damage to my two fighters, but I easily conquered him with a Fighter and Samurai combo (Bartz and Faris). I was able to easily beat him with no trouble. Now...as for the other two, basically the same thing happened. To consider Flare as my own, I had to defeat the boss Omniscient. It was a powerful wizard-type boss. It was easily taken down with a carefully summoned Carbuncle (casts Reflect on the party) by Reina plus strong Black Magic attacks from Krile. I did get beaten up, but I never was truly challenged. With the two bosses down, I now had a hold of the best magics available for Black and White Mages. Woo!
     After claiming the spells, the Fork Tower disappeared and revealed itself to be located on top of the underwater laboratory from earlier on (where we found the airship). I went inside to find Cid and Mid still hard at work. They recently discovered another book with more technology! They quickly adapted the airship to give it submarine capabilities. Now I was able to dive underwater! With the airship now capable of all forms of travel, all I have left to do is obtain the last two lithographs and procure extra supplies/summons with some side quests. First up on the list was Walz Tower. Earlier on in the game, Walz Tower sank below the ocean. However, with the submarine at hand, I was able to dive down and go inside it. I was limited to 7 minutes down there, but that was more than enough to claim a missing crystal shard for...Boss Battle Time? I say it like that because it wasn't so much a Boss Battle as it was a staring contest. I encountered a mysterious man named GoGo. He had the special ability to Mime any and everything we threw at him. You beat him by simply doing nothing. After a whole lot of nothing, he congratulated us and gave me the final crystal shard with the final job...Mime! After Mime, I sought after several more side quests for greater power, equipment, and abilities.
     Next up was a small request by a man in Mirage Village. He would give me a special gift if I ran around the world on a Chocobo! One trip around the world later, and I'm rewarded with a Mirage Vest. Of course, during the trip around, I also collected a Magic Lamp on a waterfall. After the Mirage Vest, I took the airship to the Pirate Cove (the one from the VERY beginning) and was given a new summon...Hydra! There was a little moment where the spirit of Hydra came back and offered the group its help. It was a nice touch. After Hydra, I only had a few items left on my list of "Side Quests." All three items left on the list involve summons. I started by going after Odin in Jachol Cave. I visited this cave earlier on and basically got nothing out of it. With the world back together, the cave had a new location it lead to. After going through the cave, I found myself in the bottom section of Val Castle. The door down there was locked when I tried from the other side, but the cave lead right into it. Inside was Odin, and it was time for me to claim him! BOSS BATTLE TIME!
     If you remember Odin from...basically any of the previous titles with summons, you generally can only get Odin by defeating him in battle extremely quickly. If you fail to do it quickly, he will make quick work of you. As for FF5, he gave me ONE minute to prove myself. The battle started, and I threw everything I had at him. Super attacks from Legendary weapons and several rounds of Flare was able to shut Odin up and add him to the Summon squad. After Odin, I began looking for the next in line...Phoenix! The summon was located in..Phoenix Tower. I required a Black Chocobo to get to the tower. The only one left in the world was in Mirage Village. After the small trip to retrieve that, I made way to the tower in the desert. It was a quick walk to it, and then I had to climb 30 floors. It sounds like a daunting task, but there really weren't any dangerous enemies inside. Nothing much for items either, but there was a special battle located on a handful of the floors. The battle was with a monster called a Magic Pot. All it does is sit there and ask for Elixers. Most of them were satisfied with 1 Elixer and then ran off. The benefit of all this? 100 Ability Points per Magic Pot. There was around 5 of them during the climb up, so it was a very good thing. I gained many, many job levels out of that, so it was a huuge plus. Eventually, I reached the top and was lead into a cutscene. Reina's dragon was located on the top of the tower. It flew off the tower to sacrifice itself...It sounds really harsh and sad, but Krile informed us (she can talk to magical animals and such) that it was doing it to help us. The dragon sacrificed itself and turned into a Phoenix! And thus...I earned the Phoenix summon. Next up would be Bahamut, but I don't think I'm quite ready for that yet, so I'll continue with the rest of the lithographs and then come back to Bahamut. You'll get yours soon enough Dragon God!
     The next location was hidden underneath a waterfall. I had to use the submarine to access it, but it was quickly found and gained entrance to...Easterly Falls! Inside here was the "last" lithograph according to the characters. This is number three for me though...Whatever! I traveled through the perilous waterfall cave (not very perilous). The enemies weren't much of a challenge here, but I was looking forward to more Legendary Weapons. I made it through, grabbed up the lithograph, and was greeted by Leviathan. It killed off one of Exdeath's minions who attempted to stop me. It offered to join me if I could beat it...BOSS BATTLE TIME! Thanks to the usual guide tip, I easily beat and obtained Leviathan. I won't go into details, but I'll just say that Water-based attacks are completely useless against a party with Coral Rings equipped. (Coral Rings absorb water-based magic/attacks.) Yet another summon to add to my squad of summons! I've almost got all of them now. I'll grab Bahamut later, but now it is time for the final lithograph! It's also the 3rd one, but the order isn't important apparently.
     Before going to the next location, I returned to the Sealed Castle for another trio of Legendary Weapons. I picked out the Apollo Harp, Assassin's Dagger, and the Ninja Blade. With those in hand, it was time to find the next and final lithograph. The final (and third one technically in-game) is located somewhere under the ocean in a great sea hole. They call it the Great Sea Trench, but the area I entered into looked more like a giant hole. Anyways, I went inside and began the search for Lithograph #3! This was by far one of the weirder places. There was lava everywhere, and all of the enemies looked like mangled, inside-out monster things. Lucky for me, one of the best abilities to put to use here was the Bard with the Requiem song. It would damage the entire enemy group for 3000ish damage each! With the enemies not being much trouble, I  could mostly focus on moving right along. Halfway in, I found a dwarf village with...5 dwarves in it. The first one I talked to even exclaimed about there being only 5. You'd think they would be worried, but they seem all right with this fact. I kept moving forward through lava, pressed some switches, and finally located the last lithograph. It seems I wouldn't get it without a BOSS BATTLE TIME!
     The boss this time was a trio of hideous...demon baby monster things. They weren't super tough, but they had two annoying things about them. The first was that you have to kill all three at the same time. The second was that killing one would only knock him out momentarily. He would then come back and the group would use a move called Delta Attack on one random party member...turning them into stone. After several frustrating rounds, I was able to put this trio of monsters down. I then claimed the final lithograph! It also granted me the Time spell Meteo! Woo! With the final lithograph in hand, I made way to the Sealed Castle to take the final three Legendary weapons. The remaining weapons were the Yoichi's Bow, Fire Bute (it's a whip), and the Earth Bell. With the weapons at my disposal, it was almost time to head to the N-Zone. Before that, I had one last location to visit. It was time to confront Bahamut on the North Mountain.
     I made a few pit stops and then used the Black Chocobo to get there. It was another location where I couldn't fly my airship in. Anyways, the mountain proceeded as it had the first time I climbed it (for the Dragon Grass). It was a slow and pointless climb to one of the game's hardest battles...BOSS BATTLE TIME! According to my guide friend, I had only a brief period of time before Bahamut would cast Mega Flare and wipe out my party. With that in mind, my goal was to deal out damage quickly and heavily. I jumped in, buffed up my party, and beat him in around 4-5 rounds. I..kinda expected a harder battle. Regardless, I added Bahamut as the Squad Leader in Summon Squad! Woo! All that's left now is petty leveling, item buying, and then...final area commences!
     Seeing as I have quite a bit typed up here for this post, I'm going to end the post here and begin a new post for the final area. That one will probably be overly short minus the dozen-ish boss battles that will take place. So...ONWARD! TO THE FINAL FANTASY 5 FINAL POST!

Ending Point - Nearby Mirage Village.
Current Party -

• Bartz Level 40 - Samurai Level 4 with Two-handed ability.
• Reina Level 39 - Black Mage Level 6 with White Magic ability.
• Krile Level 40 - Time Mage Level 6 with Black Magic ability.
• Faris Level 40 - Knight Level 2 with Two Sword ability. 

Goals Accomplished - Located the Pyramid and retrieved the first lithograph. Regained Reina as a party member. Discovered the mysterious Mirage Village and stocked up. Obtained the first three Legendary Weapons. Located the Island Shrine and retrieved the second lithograph. Obtained the White Magic spell Holy and Black Magic spell Flare. Obtained three more Legendary Weapons. Upgraded my airship to enable submarine mode. Completed several side quests for some new items including the Hydra Summon, a Magic Lamp, and a Mirage Vest. More side quests and obtained Odin and Phoenix summons! Located Easterly Falls and retrieved the third lithograph. Obtained three more Legendary Weapons. Fought and obtained the Leviathan summon. Found the Great Sea Trench and obtained the fourth and final lithograph. Obtained the Time Magic spell Meteo. Obtained the final three Legendary Weapons. Defeated and obtained the Bahamut summon!
Next Goals - Enter the N-Zone and defeat Exdeath. Save the World.

~May the Crystals Guide Me~

Day 36

Game - Final Fantasy 5, Day 36
Hours Played/Hours Total - 6-1/2 hrs / 25-1/2 hrs
Starting Point - Nearby Val Castle.
Current Goal - Locate Zeza's Fleet and join up with him. Defeat Exdeath and save the world!

What Happened - Hooo boy! As you've realized by the last couple of posts, I've been referring to a guide to help me get some of the extra bits. And from what I've seen, I'm maybe at the halfway point of the game. With that in mind, I'm looking at around 20 hours to get through the rest of it. Best get started!
     Starting from Val Castle, I made my way eastward and located Zeza's fleet. There were quite a few ships out there, but I was able to land on the biggest ship with my dragon. Upon landing, I was greeted by King Zeza (he prefers just Zeza like Galuf). The two chatted briefly and then the group rested. However, we were awaken mid-sleep by a battle up above. Exdeath's forces had come to attack the ships. After dealing with a handful of enemies, I came face to face with...Gilgamesh again. BOSS BATTLE TIME! It seems that Gilgamesh is going to be the recurring boss for the game. So far, he's never been much of a challenge and seems like more of a joke fight.  This battle didn't prove very different until he summoned a little help. Just as he was about to go down, he brought in a friend who was turning the sides for the battle. It was starting to go slowly and downhill, but I finished the battle in one stroke with the Samurai's $toss skill. It throws a huge pile of your money at the enemy for massive damage. I don't know how much I lost, but I figure the price was right to end the battle.
     Gilgamesh attempted to grab the group and bring them into the ocean with himself, but he failed at that and drifted away. The group recovered from this and took the next action. Zeza had already made a full plan. First, they dug a hole under the ocean directly to one of the Barrier Towers. Once said tunnel was done, they were going to use it to infiltrate and destroy the tower. This would lower the barrier and allow a direct approach to Exdeath's castle. Zeza showed the group the submarine and left the fleet behind. Once underneath the tower, Zeza blew a hole inside and gave us instructions. He was heading to the basement to destroy the power room while we would head to the top and destroy the antenna.
     One tower climb later (trying to cut down), I found myself at the top. Just as the group was about to destroy the antenna, BOSS BATTLE TIME! This was actually a really difficult and highly unusual boss battle. The boss was a giant monstrosity with a huge mouth. According to the guide, his name is Atomos. I recognize the name from a different Final Fantasy (he's a summon in 9). Anyways, the entire battle consisted of Atomos casting Comet on select people and then dragging them forward. His strategy was to kill people and pull them towards himself. Once they reached him, those people were "sucked into another dimension" as the game put it. However, he could only pull downed party members into the warp (or whatever). In all reality, the best strategy would be to let him take one out and unleash my attacks on him as he focused on that person. I believe he wouldn't kill another one until he had sucked in that person. Instead, I kept reviving people here and there so he kept killing off someone. Sometimes he'd kill off two people, and then I had to waste all my turns reviving. Before it was all said and done, I actually lost Bartz and Galuf to him. I barely managed to kill him as he was about to get Faris too. With Atomos defeated, the antenna was finally starting to go. However...tragedy strikes (as always).
     As the group starts trying to escape the tower, Zeza reports in that the engine room is beginning to blow. And then the game takes off into a cutscene. Basically, Zeza is stuck down there, and he knew this was going to happen. Galuf wants to go after him, but Zeza pleads the group to leave him behind so they can face Exdeath. He promises to meet them back by the submarine (An obvious lie of course). A short time later, the group is waiting at the submarine when Galuf finally gives in. Faris suggests that we use the sub to reach Gill's cave, and I'm off to the next location.
     The inside of Gill's Cave was just a big damn puzzle. I cheated with guide help and used it to get myself to Gill a bit faster. Nothing super special inside the cave outside of the puzzle and random monsters. The group finally encounters Gill and discovers that he...is a turtle. Gill reveals some of Exdeath's back story to the group as well as what his next plan is. It seems that Exdeath was created when an evil spirit in a tree turned a tree into a monster. The monster was Exdeath. He had been kept sealed for 500 years until the incident 30 years ago. The Dawn Warriors managed to seal him using the crystals of the other planet, but then he broke loose. After that, Gill instructs the group to go to Moore Forest. Exdeath is currently looking for something there, and the group needs to go and protect it. The forest is alive, and it is impossible to directly enter it. Gill handed over something called the Elder Branch. He said it would allow us to enter the forest. Well now...off to Moore Forest!
     Moore Forest was located in land in an area that I couldn't fly into. I had to find a spot under the ocean with the submarine and go up into the Moore area. Before heading to Moore Forest, I checked out the nearby village of...Moore Village. They had some new and really good equipment and spells, but I didn't have enough money for it all. I had to spend the next hour or so farming up some money so that I could buy everything out. I gained some extra levels also, so it didn't feel like a huge waste of time. After that, I used the Elder Branch to open and finally enter the forest. About halfway into the forest, it started catching fire. It seems that Exdeath was incredibly determined to find what he wanted. The group managed to escape the fire when a Moogle came up and helped them. After the fire passed, I continued further into the forest until we came face to face with the Master Tree. The Elder Branch opened the way, and I stepped inside. The next thing I knew, I was in ...BOSS BATTLE TIME!
     I had to fight off a group of four giant crystals. It doesn't sound like much of a battle, but it was fairly tough. It killed me on my first attempt. Anyways, each crystal had its own type so I couldn't use any group spells or summons against them. On top of that, once a crystal reached critical health, it started casting super damaging spells. My first attempt went okay until they started the super spells. The second time, I used the ultimate strategy! I used the Samurai's $toss ability twice, and that killed off all the crystals. Sure, I put a bit more effort into it than that, but that was the basic idea of what happened. After defeating the crystals, it seemed like that was a huge mistake. Exdeath walks in and thanks the group for breaking the seal so that he could claim the power of the crystals. With the crystals in hand, he started slaughtering the party. Just as it looked grim, Krile came in and blasted Exdeath. However, she soon was captured as well. Galuf used all his strength to save Krile and then charged at Exdeath for STORY BOSS BATTLE TIME!
     Galuf was actually killed in the first attack, but as per story battle, he kept going. He attacked and attacked Exdeath until he was defeated. Exdeath fled the scene with the crystals. The group runs up to Galuf, but it was too late. He was already horribly injured, and it seemed his time had come. They all did their best to try and save him, but it was over. Galuf passed on. The group mourned for his death, and Krile received his powers and abilities. (Thank god, I was NOT looking forward to retraining an entire character.) With Exdeath in possession of those crystals, the group had to hurry and get him. I made my way to Exdeath's Castle and prepared for a final battle. The last thing I did before going to Exdeath's Castle was locate another summon monster. This time, it was some weird looking thing named Shoat. It looked like some sort of one-eyed cat goat monster. I defeated it with little trouble and had a new summon in hand. Off to Exdeath's Castle!
     Finally back to his castle. If you remember, I was shortly here when the group first arrived on this planet. This time though...we are here to face Exdeath himself! The group infiltrates the castle. They don't make it too far inside when they hit a dead end. Krile looks over it and knows it isn't a dead end. As she's looking at the wall, something speaks to her. The game changes places, and I see a glimpse of the Dawn Warrior Kelga. He realizes that he is the last surviving Dawn Warrior, and that he is going to pass soon. Using the last of his power, he breaks the illusion over the castle. With the illusion gone, I'm able to continue onward. There wasn't any necessarily hard puzzles along the way, but the enemies easily made up for this. Many of them weren't really hard on their own, but they had stupidly powerful combos that easily doubled or tripled their difficulty. Even further on, I started running into dragons. They were all a pain in the ass. Along the way, I ran into another summon monster...Carbuncle! He wanted me to prove my worth in BOSS BATTLE TIME!
     Lucky for me, I already had a hot tip for beating Carbuncle. Apparently, my newly acquired summon, Shoat, is perfect for this. All Shoat can do is petrify an opponent turning them to stone, but it seems to work on Carbuncle for some reason. The first attempted Shoat missed, but the second one hit right on and defeated Carbuncle. Woo! Got another summon! Just shortly after the encounter with Carbuncle, I was met with an old friend...Gilgamesh. He attacked the group for the FOURTH time! Another BOSS BATTLE! This was one was just like the rest however. He didn't put up much of a challenge, and it seemed to be more of a "story battle" than anything. He talked to the group and asked about the "old man." Krile and party answered that Exdeath had killed him. Funny enough, Gilgamesh seemed to show a sadness towards this. After fighting for a while, he morphed into a larger and more powerful looking form. Since we last saw him, he had obtained the mythical Excalibur! Despite its mythical super ability, it wasn't doing anything to the group. Eventually, Exdeath stepped in and killed Gilgamesh. Victory...I guess? Found out shortly after the battle that what Gilgamesh actually had was the "Excalipur," which is a famous knockoff version of Excalibur.
     Shortly after Gilgamesh's battle, the group came face to face with the bad guy himself...time for BOSS BATTLE! Exdeath put up quite a fight here. Even with summoning Golem (for physical defense) and Carbuncle (for Reflect status), I still had quite a fight on my hands. I put a lot of Blue Magic to use during this battle, and after several rounds of mostly healing, the group defeated Exdeath...maybe. After the battle, there was a sudden flash and the group passed out. They awakened to find themselves back nearby Castle Tycoon. I went inside and Faris and Reina were welcomed back as Princesses of the kingdom. A party started and the two Princesses (Faris/Salsa and Reina) were sitting at their thrones. Bartz and Krile had a bad feeling that something was off and left to find out what all had happened. Along the way, I re-encountered my old friend Boko. He was doing quite well, and he even had a wife chocobo named Koko! Boko agreed to help the two, and I began my travels back on the original planet.
     I didn't make it too far when all of a sudden a hole opened up in the ground! Everybody was okay...but then a monster attacked Bartz and Krile! I quickly put him down, but the two were stuck in the hole. I had to wait around for a bit. Eventually, a small rope appeared near the top of the cave. It lowered down and helped the group get back up. Turns out that Faris was the one at the top. She was mad at the two for abandoning her at the party. She joined the group, and I quickly made my way further on. Eventually, I found a small cave that turned out to be Gill's Cave! Gill talked to the group and told them about what was happening. Apparently, the two planets had merged back together! A long time ago, the two planets were actually one planet. The planet was split into two planets back then to seal off The Void. Back when the planet was one, a powerful evil known as Enuo had the power to control the Void. The fight with Enuo raged for quite some time, but it was finally defeated with the use of 12 legendary weapons. Unfortunately, they were unable to get rid of the Void that Enuo had brought about. The worlds split the crystals all in two, and that separated the world into two planets. The space between the two worlds, called the N-Zone, was where they sealed away The Void.
     Exdeath had known all this and brought the planets back together as one in order to obtain power over The Void. Just as Gill was finished talking, Exdeath made his appearance. He had hidden himself on Krila as a splinter. His plan was to take control of the power of the Void. Just as he started saying that, the N-Zone appears over Tycoon Castle and swallows it up. The group tries to fight Exdeath, but they all fail. Eventually, Gill steps up and fights on almost even ground with Exdeath. Before the battle concludes, the group is sent flying off by Exdeath. They awaken near the Library of Ancients with Gill. The group informs him that it is the Library of Ancients, and they head there next. The scholars at the library had hooked up with those from Surgate Castle. They each had half of an ancient book. The book, known as the Sealed Book, contained the information necessary to defeat Exdeath. The book told of the location where the 12 Legendary Weapons were sealed. However, to get to those weapons, I would have to hunt down 4 Lithographs located all over the world. Each lithograph was protected by guardians. Gill told the group that they needed to hurry and find the weapons before Exdeath gained full control of the Void.
     Seeing as I have accomplished quite a bit, I've decided to end it here for now. I saved up my game, and I'm ready for another post hopefully before Sunday evening.

Ending Point - Nearby the Library of Ancients.
Current Party -

• Bartz Level 35 - Berserker Lvl 1 with Two Handed ability.
• Reina - Currently Missing in Action.
• Krile Level 35 - Blue Mage Lvl 3 with White Magic.
• Faris Level 35 - Samurai Lvl 3 with Two Swords ability.

Goals Accomplished -Located Zeza's Fleet and joined up with him. Helped fight off an enemy attack on Zeza's ship. Climbed up and destroyed the Barrier Tower. Used the Submarine to enter Gill's Cave. Located and Entered Moore Forest. Helped Exdeath by breaking the seal (great job) and letting him gain the crystals. Defeated and obtained the Shoat summon. Defeated and obtained the Carbuncle summon. Explored Exdeath's Castle and defeated Exdeath. Explored the new merged world and found Gill. Learned from the Sealed Book about the 12 Legendary Weapons.
Next Goals - Obtain the 12 Legendary Weapons. Stop Exdeath from controlling The Void. Save the world.

~May the Crystals Guide Me~

Day 35

Game - Final Fantasy 5, Day 35
Hours Played/Hours Total - 8 hrs / 19 hrs
Starting Point - Nearby the Library of Ancients
Current Goal - Pass through the Desert and find out where King Tycoon was going. Find and Protect the Earth Crystal. Save the world from Exdeath!

What Happened - Well, my last post was a bit big. I'm hoping to get a decent number of hours in on this one, but hopefully not so much text either! Onward to the happening!
     I started off from the Library of Ancients and began heading west to the nearby desert. The unfortunate part about this desert was that its flowing sands kept anybody (including us) from going directly through it. However, when I attempted to cross, Cid and Mid showed up with a plan to help us cross. They were going to call a Sandworm using a bell. We would defeat said Sandworm and be able to cross into the desert using it. I didn't really get the plan at first, but I went with it. BOSS BATTLE TIME! The Sandworm wasn't really the toughest boss, but he sure as hell was annoying. The first thing you see on the field is 3 holes. The Sandworm pops out of one of them, and you can probably already guess what happens. Basically, at random points in battle, the Sandworm switches placed. Most of the time, this didn't really help it, but I lost at least 4 or 5 attacks because I was attacking a hole and not a worm. It also had the Demi spell (which reduces an target's health by 1/2) along with a special ability called Quicksand. None of these were necessarily devastating, but they sure got annoying. I had to constantly keep up with healing through use of Cure 2. I really wish I had better spells at this point, but I think I have the best at the moment. Anyways, many, many rounds later, I finally defeated the damn annoying Sandworm!
     With the Sandworm defeated, it became apparent what they were planning. Apparently, I was to use the dead Sandworm's carcass as a bridge over the sand. That or it might have actually meant to use the Sandworm's tunnels...it looked more like the bridge thing though. Whatever! I could finally travel through the desert. It was an interesting walk through the desert. The big mechanic about the desert was the shifting sands. Step on the wrong spot, and you'd end up going back quite a distance. However, it was also the only way forward. So I pushed my way through the desert...It took some time, but I did make it all the way eventually. I then proceeded southward to the ruins of city called Gorn Town.
     Upon entry, the group spotted the king walking about. He decided he wanted to play a game of "Catch the King." It was neither fun nor interesting. I would advise everybody to not play "Catch the King." Anyways, I walked around chasing after him until he trapped himself in a room. The group begins to approach him...then they fell through the floor. Found myself in a mysterious ruins below the town. I walked around and found myself on a strange platform. The platform started flashing, and the group was teleported across the world. They finally ended up somewhere underneath Crescent Island. Just as they arrived, the machine that teleported them started to shred apart! The group ran out of the room and began the climb upward through the mysterious ruins.
     Along the way, I got a brief glimpse at what was happening above. Cid and Mid had taken my black chocobo and was returning it to the forest on Crescent Island. As it returned to the group, we were running about what seemed to be an ancient civilizations lab of sorts. There were all forms of books and equipment. Once I got a bit further, I discovered a lovely surprise! In these ruins below, I located the old Fire Ship! Apparently it was some sort of underwater hanger, but even better than that was the thing next to it...an airship! Briefly before entering this area, I had to hit a switch to open a door. This switch also caused an opening to appear on the surface...right underneath Mid and Cid! So just as I was finding the airship, the science twosome also showed up. They were amazed by the discovery. Cid managed to fix the airship, and I was now ready to soar the skies! Cid and Mid stayed behind while I made way to the surface.
     Before I did anything else, I made my way to Easterly Town to try and obtain Ramuh, who I last heard was wandering around the nearby forest there. I walked around and eventually came in contact with the old thunder god...BOSS BATTLE TIME! Thankfully, this wasn't too challenging of a battle and was fairly straightforward. All he had was a pile of electric attacks like Bolt 2 and a few specialty ones of his own. After several rounds, he has a talk with Ifrit (who joined me quite a while back) and despite his unwillingness to join...he ended up joining. That's about all I did side quest-wise...although I also visited a few towns and bought more stuff. Nothing super notable there, so onward to the rest of the post!
     While flying around, I happened to fly over Gorn Town and an event happened. The area around the town rose up, and it turns out that Gorn was part of a giant flying fortress. It rose high into the sky, but it was too high for the airship. Well...no idea what to do here, so I returned to the underwater hanger. Cid and Mid saw everything and explained that the thing moving the fortress into the sky was the Earth Crystal. It seems that the fortress had stopped floating long ago because the crystal cracked. Everybody realized that if it was flying again, someone must have started it up, and that they wouldn't have long to stop it before the crystal shattered. Thankfully, Cid had a plan. He said the ship could go higher if they coated with with Adamantium. I see what you did there Squaresoft/Square Enix. Luckily, Galuf remembers that there was Adamantium in the meteor came down in. The group questioned how he remembered it, but it is the only lead we got...so off we went to Tycoon Meteor!
     This was a short trip. I flew northward to Tycoon and disembarked nearby the meteor. I quickly ran over to it. There wasn't an entrance into it, but Galuf managed to recall a switch to get inside. Once inside, I quickly located the adamantium, but of course, I wasn't allowed to do this without SOME kind of fight. BOSS BATTLE TIME! I came face to face with the Adamantoise (I think it had a different name, but that's what it was!). Lucky for me, he didn't have a lot of health, but he sure as hell had a lot defense. I had to keep after him with everything I had, and keep in mind, most attacks weren't doing much more than around 100-120 damage. It also wasn't throwing out a lot of damage itself, so this battle was just a pile of time wasting. After its defeat, I left the meteor and returned to Cid and Mid. They grabbed the adamantium and fixed up the ship. Before we left, the two informed us of a big problem involving the flying fortress. It seems that it wasn't completely undefended. According to a book, there was giant, powerful cannons on it that Cid and Mid believed would shoot the airship out of the sky before they could get on it. The group figured they had to try anyways. I jumped on my improved airship and flew upward into the sky.
     I flew high up and was met with the flying fortress. It floated there all nice like while I assaulted the four cannons (two on each side). There were two types of cannons I encountered: Missile Launchers and Flamethrowers. Why someone would arm a flying fortress with flamethrowers...I don't know, but that didn't matter. The Flamethrowers were fairly easy, but the Missile Launchers actually gave me some trouble. They only had two attacks, but both of those attacks were really frustrating. The first one, Missile, took around 3/4ths of the targets health. Yay for me. The second one, Punch Missile (or something like that) did a decent amount of damage and then CONFUSED the target. This led to me having to try and cure said confused friend while also worry about the two cannons. The only reason this wouldn't go well is because they tend to confuse either my heavy hitter or my healer. I actually died one time and had to redo all the cannon fights. After that second try, I finally beat them all...just to come face to face with a giant super cannon called Soul Gun. I charged at it for BOSS BATTLE TIME!
     It was definitely bigger and harder than the previous cannons. The Soul Gun had a pair of missile launchers on it (not like the ones before), so I set to destroy those first. Lucky me, the missiles they fired caused the status Aging on my two big hitters. I'm not 100% sure what all it does, but it most definitely lowers their physical attack. Fantastic. After destroying the missile launchers, all I had to deal with was a slowly charging cannon. Each shot did a party wide attack of around 200-250 damage to each person, which is around half their average HP. I had to keep with constant Cure 2 spells in between cannon shots. If I even remotely neglected this, I would have died. After a much longer than necessary battle, I finally beat the Soul Gun! The giant whole left when it exploded was just big enough to fit the airship, so the group flew inside. A small note...I actually died to the Soul Gun one time, and I had to re-fight everything else. That means I actually went through the cannons THREE times. Regardless, I was now inside the Ruins of Ronka.
     The Ruins of Ronka looked quite a bit like the underwater hanger for the ships, but they contained some fairly ferocious monsters. Along the way, I changed Galuf's class two or three times trying to decide what to make him. He's not really fit for any one class, but he is most definitely not a magic person as far as I'm concerned. It was a fun maze of random stairs and pathways. Along the way, I did obtain a few nice pieces of armor and some new Blue Magic*. Before long, I found myself in front of King Tycoon, who was trying to get past a giant snake monster. The group attacked it for yet another BOSS BATTLE! The boss this time was a giant winged serpent called Archeoavis. Despite what the guide told me, he was actually not that hard. Sure, I had to revive my people several times, but I got in many good hits all during. It was a two part battle with the big snake. The first time he went down...he got right back up again! Although he went down faster and easier that second time. After his defeat, the king started laughing strangely and ran past the group. I followed him swiftly. WARNING! Some fairly big spoilers up ahead!
     The next area was the crystal chamber housing the Earth Crystal. The King was having a strange moment and talking funny. Reina and Faris tried to approach him, but Bartz and Galuf sensed something horribly wrong. Faris calls him father and FINALLY reveals herself to be Reina's long lost sister...Salsa. A horrible name but somewhat touching moment nonetheless. The King attacks the group but doesn't get too far when...A meteor strikes down! Next, a hole busts in the wall and in comes a random little girl. She blasts the King and saves the party. She reveals herself to be Galuf's granddaughter, Krile, and this finally spurs Galuf's memory back into his brain! He remembers everything and begins explaining everything to the group. While this is going on, the King gets up (Krile says she hit him with a weak bolt). Galuf reveals that he is most definitely from another planet. It was there that an evil black mage, Exdeath, was causing havoc. He came to the current planet and attempted to destroy everything there. Galuf and his group of warriors came down and sealed him in the planet using the crystals. They figured that the crystals could hold him, but he managed to push through the seal and influence their destruction. Galuf saw this happening, but he wasn't able to make it in time. As he is explaining all of this, the Earth Crystal shatters...and the worst has come to pass. Exdeath appears before the group. With his newfound freedom, he attacks the group with the nearby crystal shards and leaves to make his way back to his planet (Galuf's planet). The party is caught by all the crystals attacking him, and the King Tycoon gives his life to stop the crystal shards. Sad time.
     The group collects up the shards and gains 4 new jobs: Samurai, Lancer, Dancer, and Chemist. Just as they get the shards, the place starts going critical. Everything starts blowing up so the group retreats back to their airship and flies out of there. Next up, Galuf claims that he must hurry back to his world to defeat Exdeath. He and Krila have to use the meteor she came in on to teleport back. He refused to let the group follow him because it was a one way trip. Despite their arguments, Galuf and Krila depart alone for their home planet. The group isn't sure what to do now, but in the end, they decide they want to chase after and help defeat Exdeath with Galuf. They mentioned talking to Cid since he might know a way to get the meteor teleporters working. I went back to the underwater hanger to find...nobody home. They left a note about examining the Tycoon Meteor, so I went there next.
     Upon entering Tycoon Meteor, Cid and Mid show off a new discovery! They were coming here to return the Adamantium to the meteor when it had a strange reaction. Apparently the Adamantium was causing a buildup of energy in the meteor. The group starts talking and figure this might be able to power the meteor's warp to get the trio to Galuf's planet. So Cid and Mid use the Black Chocobo and go around jump starting all the meteors. Minus the Tycoon Meteor, I had to fly to three different meteors: Karnak, Walz, and Gorn. Each spot had a slightly different challenge waiting for me, but they were all bosses in the end. Looks like TRIPLE BOSS BATTLE TIME!
     The first one (at Karnak) was the monstrous Titan. He wasn't too challenging, but he did have a signature move. After you give him the final killing attack, he strikes out with a huge earthquake attack for around 500 damage per person. Meaning if you aren't careful, you end up dying right as you beat him. As an added bonus, I gained the Titan summon from this battle! Next up was the Walz meteor boss. This one was a real annoyance. The boss battle is made up of 6 bomb-based monsters (the giant fireball monsters). If you killed one by himself, he would simply revive everybody else as he died. You had to kill all 6 at the same time, or they would all be revived. I used a tip from a guide and was able to bypass this with a Ninja Item called Lightning. Three Lightning items later, I defeated this annoyance and moved to the next meteor at Gorn. The Gorn Meteor's boss was a strange looking chimera. Outside of its strange look, it really didn't have much to it. The best attack it had was Aqua Rake. That dealt out some decent damage, but it was not enough to total the party at any one time. Keep in mind, these battles were extra fun because I only had 3 characters (since Galuf left back there).
     Once the meteors were all "activated" Cid pinpointed the spot in which their power was all collecting. He figured that is where the warp would most likely appear. The group thanked Cid and Mid and bid them farewell. They knew that as soon as they jumped into the warp that they would never be able to return. I flew to the spot and the three of them jumped inside. They were immediately warped to Galuf's planet. Unfortunately, they were warped onto an island in the middle of nowhere. The game basically forces you to use a Tent on the island to progress the game. As soon as you do that, the group is attacked in the middle of the night. Despite beating the assailants, the group is captured and taken to Exdeath. Exdeath uses the group as bargaining chips to keep Galuf and his soldiers at bay. Galuf takes a chance and flies to Exdeath's castle on Krila's dragon. Once inside Galuf (I took control at this point) charges in and rescues the group. They were being protected by a man known as Gilgamesh. He quickly gave up after a few hits and ran off. After freeing the group, I escaped from the castle and made my way to the nearby bridge. However, the bridge was just a long string of set battles. I slowly and painfully fought my way across until I came face to face with Gilgamesh again. BOSS BATTLE TIME!
     He played weak at first and pretended to be defeated while he powered himself up. He then started a huuuge comeback. He was going way faster and dealing quite a bit more damage. I came close to death many times, but I finally pulled through and "defeated" Gilgamesh again. He actually ran away, but that's not important right now. Just as the group makes it to the end of the bridge, Exdeath lets loose a giant magical barrier wave from his castle. The wave flies outward and strikes the group, flinging them to a far off place. The group wakes up in a far off place. Galuf identified it as some sort of "wild wilderness", but the group moves forward and onward. I proceeded eastward and eventually ran into a town called Lugor Bordertown. Once there, I started the long process of upgrading all my equipment and restocking on items. This took some time as I had to farm up some more gold. I spent the next hour or so farming up gold and job levels.
     After doing that for a while, I decided I was both bored of farming and ready to move on. I used up all the appropriated funds resupplying myself and began heading south. It was a fairly long path to the next destination (which I have no idea what it is). Eventually, I ran into a small forest where I met one of the most famous creatures of the Final Fantasy series...the Moogle! Yes, you heard me! (Because I know you are all super excited about that...) It seems the Moogles in this universe are squeamish, and it attempted to run. And it did...right into a hole. The group felt bad for it and went after it. Enter...the Cave Dungeon! It was a somewhat different form of dungeon because there was no real walking involved. Instead, you jumped in the water and let it carry you throughout, but the catch is you get random battles as you float down. On top of that, you can't open your menu in between battle or until you get back on land. Thankfully this wasn't an issue for me since most of the monsters were pushovers. Eventually, I stumbled upon the Moogle from before, and it's being attacked by a monster! The group rushes in to save the Moogle in...BOSS BATTLE TIME!
     The funny thing is...this battle took like 5 seconds. I've been following a guide (despite my preferred style of play) to make sure I get everything I can. I learned that a single Phoenix Down would immediately kill this boss, so I used it..and it did. Boss Battle over. The Moogle was still shy despite our rescue of it. Reina eventually convinced it that the group was okay, and in its excitement, the Moogle ran out of the cave and showed us a strange path through the next world map area. I followed along and eventually came to a forested area. I looked around a bit and eventually stumbled upon the Moogle Village! Upon entering, all of the moogles started running about all scared and crazy like. Being a small village, I happened upon the moogle we saved quite quickly. It thanked us by giving us a small trove of treasure. After taking it all, the moogle jumped started acting strangely...and I was treated to a cutscene. It flew across the world to Krile in a castle where a Moogle started talking with her. Apparently moogles have telepathy...Anyways, she jumped on the dragon and flew over to Moogle Village. After a brief talking, the group jumped on the dragon and made way for the castle.
     The castle (known as Val Castle) is actually Galuf's castle...Yup, turns out Galuf is a King! After discussing a bit, the group's main goal is to go after Exdeath, but that is currently problematic since he has a giant barrier around his castle. Anyways, the group gets sidetracked by the dragon. It seems the dragon was actually fairly hurt BEFORE the trip to save everybody. Now the dragon is dying, and the group has to save it. Of course, Reina points out that they need Dragon Grass. After some talking, Galuf and Krile point to the Valley of the Dragons. Of course, there's that funny rumor/legend/whatever about how anybody who goes there never returns. I like how those seem to exist in every game in an area that you HAVE to go through. I think it's to make you feel tougher...Anyways, I healed, resupplied, saved, and then made my way north. Before I could get to the valley, I had to pass through Kelb Village, a village of werewolves.
     Once there, I found out quite fast that the village appeared to be deserted. I walked all around, but most of the doors were locked. I say most in that one door happened to not be locked. I walked inside, found nothing, and turned around to go out. As I was leaving, a group of werewolves ran inside and were trying to capture the group. They figured them to be in league with Exdeath. A small scene takes place where the lead werewolf challenges Bartz to a fight. It looked hopeless for Bartz, but he eventually succeeded and defeated the leader. (There wasn't a battle, just a little sprite battle thing.) Afterwards, the leader (known as Kelga) apologizes for suspecting the group and Galuf introduces him as one of the four Dawn Warriors that originally sealed Exdeath. Kelga asked where Bartz learned to fight like that, and Bartz mentioned that he learned from his father Drago. Galuf and Kelga were surprised by this, and they revealed that their surprise was due in part that Drago was one of the four Dawn Warriors! The game goes into a cutscene revealing the group sealing Exdeath. It seems that Drago was opposed to sealing Exdeath in a random and innocent planet. Eventually he gave in, but in the end, he chose to stay there instead of returning to his home world. After the little cutscene, Kelga opens the back gate for the group and I continued onward to the Valley of Dragons...after one small sidetrip.
     Before going, I did a small side quest from the guide. A little old man in the well in Kelb Village wanted a toad. I had to go out, fight monsters until I found a toad, and capture said toad. Then it became worse...because he wanted the toad AND 10,000 gil. I then had to spend time farming up a pile of gold and re-acquire a toad to give. In the end, all I got was a fancy accessory item that made catching monsters easier. Oh well, it was almost worth it for the extra money and training I got. Anyways...ONWARD! To the Valley of Dragons!
     The Valley of Dragons was a valley, but most of this portion took place on the mountain nearby. Not important! The Valley of the Dragons wasn't horribly challenging, but there was a small thing that made it easier. At the village, a group of the werewolves taught me the song Requiem. The guide heavily suggested having a bard for using Requiem on any undead enemies that came along. It was a really great move...doing 3 to 5 times more than anybody else could to them. Moving right along, I eventually ran into a strange rock creature that randomly attacked the group and ran. Before too long, I found that same creature (called Golem) being attacked by a zombie dragon and skelesaur. It yelled for help, so I killed off the two monsters. After that, the Golem thanked the group and joined up as a new summon! Woo! After that little debacle, it was just a small distance to get the Dragon Grass. However, it wasn't as simple as it seemed (as usual). The Dragon Grass turned out to be a mutated grass monster and so begins another BOSS BATTLE TIME!
     Actually, it was another fairly easy battle. The giant Dragon Grass monster didn't directly attack. All it did the entire time was summon up Dragon Bulbs (aka small Dragon Grass monsters). However, every time it summoned up a group, I simply used a group attack or a summon. Before I knew it, the plant was dead. I grabbed the dragon grass and teleported off the mountain. I rushed back to the castle and gave the dragon grass to the dragon. A cutscene went down showing the dragon distrusting the dragon grass. It seems that the mutant dragon grass had killed countless dragons on the planet, but Reina took a chance and showed the dragon that the grass was okay (by eating it). Let's just say quite a bit happened during this, but I feel I've gone past the point of "too long" again. Moving right along.
     With access to the dragon, the group could now explore a bit further. Our next goal was to speak to a Sage named Gill. He had found out something about Exdeath. Galuf informed us that he lived in a cave on an island northeast of the Valley of Dragons. They boarded the dragon and I flew off to the island. As soon as they got to Gill's cave, the unthinkable happened! The island began to sink, and they had to rush back to the dragon. Just as they got back on the dragon, the island sank beneath the ocean. Apparently Exdeath was one step ahead of us. Unsure of what to do, I started flying around. I happened upon the one location currently available and went inside. It was another castle, Surgate Castle. Surgate Castle was home to King Zeza, the 4th Dawn Warrior, who was currently gone. He had taken his fleet and was preparing an attack against Exdeath. Before I left the castle, I explored a little bit and located some new goodies and a new spell, Float.
     With the castle fully looted, I made my way back Val Castle and decided it was time to wrap up. Yet again, I've made a post waaaay too big. I apologize, but there's plenty to read in here! Going to probably have a repeat of this in a couple of days...Anyways, good progress getting done. It already appears like I'll easily finish this one before the year is up!


*SIDE NOTE* I've been doing my best to get all the Blue Magic I can. For those who don't know, Blue Magic is the skill of casting special enemy abilities like Goblin Punch or White Wind. It's gone by many different names throughout the games (Lore in FF6 or Enemy Skill in FF7). I'd say the spells are split down the middle with half being awesomely useful and the other half being completely useless. The biggest ordeal of getting the Blue Magic is learning it. You have to have the enemy with the skill attack the character that's the Blue Mage/has the Learning ability so that they can learn it. They don't have to survive it, but they do have to be hit by it. This is incredibly annoying. Without a guide, you are basically doing hit or miss on a majority, and some abilities will NEVER be cast on the character in question unless you force them to do it via a Control ability or something like it. Anyways...just thought I'd mention it here.

Ending Point - Nearby Val Castle.
Current Party -

• Bartz - Level 27 - Lancer Lvl 1 with Earth ability.
• Reina - Level 27 - Summoner Lvl 3 with White Magic.
• Galuf - Level 28 - Samurai Lvl 2 with Two-Handed ability.
• Faris - Level 27 - Ninja Lvl 4 with Learning ability. 

Goals Accomplished - Defeated the Sandworm and made it through the desert. Obtained an airship. Obtained adamantium to upgrade the airship. Flew the airship into the Ronka ruins floating fortress to find the Earth Crystal. Found the Earth Crystal but failed to stop it from shattering. Used the meteorite's energy to warp to Galuf's planet. Captured by Exdeath but escaped thanks to Galuf. Found my way after being stranded in a remote location. Saved a Moogle and found the Moogle Village. Retrieved Dragon Grass from the Valley of the Dragons and saved Krila's dragon. Made it to Gill's Cave but lost it to the ocean. Made it to Surgate Castle.
Next Goals - Locate Zeza's Fleet and join up with him. Defeat Exdeath and save the world!

~May the Crystals Guide Me~